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I am guessing you aren’t living under a rock, so you have probably heard about the Assassin’s Creed series. You know that it’s a open-ish world stealth game where you need to go around blending in and murdering people. You know you get to climb things and jump off said things, and you probably know that Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India is a 2.5D version of that, so I will skip the normal intro spiel and get down to what makes this game stand out from the rest.

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India, as you would expect, is set in India in 1841 and you play as Arbaaz, Master Assassin, in a time where the East India Company was at war with the Sikh Empire. The story is pretty standard, Templar comes along with an item which used to belong to the Assassin’s Order, so you must retrieve it. During the way, your friend and lover gets captured (of course) and you must rescue her.

Jumping in the game, the first thing I noticed was the weird grainy filter applied over the top of the entire screen. It was very jarring to see it, especially on the new generation of consoles. Away from that, I also noticed the constant frame rate dips. Considering the game isn’t that graphically intense, and there were generally no more than five or six characters on screen, I can’t really understand why the game runs so poorly. Actually playing the game isn’t exactly a fun time either. The controls are counter-intuitive at the best of times, and just don’t do what they are supposed to at worst. The amount of times I spent way longer than necessary trying to climb a ledge or jumping out of cover for no reason was astonishing. I might be an old softy, but I can let that all slide providing the gameplay is fun and engaging, and this is where the big “unfortunately” comes in.

Unfortunately, the game is bland and repeats itself quite a lot. There are only a few different mechanics in the game, which includes using sound to lure guards, using smoke to cover yourself, using chakrams to do snooker trick shots to sever ropes or make noise and straight up murdering. After the tenth or twentieth time that you whistle to grab someone’s attention while hiding in the bushes, and then stabbing him in the face, it gets a little bit dry.

Unlike the previous Assassin’s Creed instalments, the game lacks a rich story and world to play in. The game only took me about four hours to complete, which isn’t something to complain about for a smaller title. The worst part about it is the ending, which I won’t spoil, but it is the biggest tease I have ever seen. It is left open for a sequel, which is normal for Assassin’s Creed, but unusual considering that there is no direct sequel to this game’s story planned. To be honest, it isn’t something I would expect to happen, I don’t think they should’ve ended it where they did. Another thirty minutes would have been more than enough to wrap up the story and make me feel like the game accomplished something, but I am left with nothing.

To conclude, I have to be as unbiased as possible. My own feeling aside, the game isn’t bad, not by any stretch, but that doesn’t mean the opposite is true either. Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India is OK, and just OK. If you played the previous Chronicles installment and enjoyed it, or you are a die hard Assassin’s Creed fan, you will most likely get some enjoyment out of Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India as well. However, I would not recommend this game to anyone but those people. With the bland foreground graphics in what could’ve been a beautiful setting, poor performance and repetitive gameplay, only the most serious of fans should be looking out to add this one to their collection.

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India was reviewed on Xbox One with a key provided to the reviewer by Ubisoft. It is also available on PS4 and Steam via UPlay.